The Endocrine System

MCAT Basics (from MedSchoolCoach)

MedSchoolCoach

Science

4.6 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we’ll cover crucial aspects such as hormones, their origins and mechanisms of action, and the various structures within the endocrine system. We'll also decode complex cell-to-cell communication and distinguish between different hormone types—peptide, protein, steroid, and lipid-derived.

Furthermore, we'll explore key endocrine disorders like diabetes and hyper- and hypogonadism, discussing their causes, symptoms, and relevance to the MCAT. In addition, we'll touch upon the functions and hormones of several glands, including the pituitary, thyroid, adrenal glands, and pancreas.

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Jump into the conversation:

00:00 Introduction to the MCAT Basics Podcast with host, Sam Smith

03:34 Exosomes act as information carriers for cells.

09:00 Large, charged substances dissolve in blood easily.

10:30 Protein kinase A activates multiple molecules quickly.

15:57 Podcast discusses prostaglandin, thromboxins, leukotrienes and glands.

18:22 Hormones explained: flat peg and pineal gland.

23:15 Endocrine diseases: hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, hyperinhypogonadism, diabetes.

26:33 Autoimmune disorder characterized by overactive thyroid production.

29:28 Hypothalamus role in hormone production and disorders.

34:01 Type 1 diabetes: Genetic and environmental factors.

35:47 Diagnosis and causes of type two diabetes.

39:18 Med School Coach elevates your application level.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to MCAT Basics, your ultimate guide to the essential topics you need to master for the MCAT,
0:06.2	brought to you by the physicians at med school coach. Every week, Sam Smith breaks down high-yield
0:11.5	MCAT topics, ensuring you're primed for success on test day. Join Sam as we explore the most
0:17.1	crucial subjects outlined by the AAMC pulled from official practice materials
0:21.6	and third-party resources. Get ready to elevate your MCAT game with topics tailored to
0:26.3	maximize your score potential. Hello, I'm Sam Smith. This podcast is going to cover the endocrine
0:33.7	system, which is one of the higher yield organ systems on the MCAT. I typically have seen the nervous system a little bit more.
0:39.7	So if you haven't listened to the nervous system podcast, go do that.
0:43.3	But the endocrine system still shows up a lot.
0:45.3	So it's still important.
0:46.3	And what I'm going to do is I'm going to cover the hormones.
0:49.3	I'll go over the types of hormones, their origin, and their action mechanism.
0:55.7	And then I'll talk about the structures involved within the endocrine system.
0:59.8	And what's important to know here is essentially which hormones originate from which structure.
1:05.0	And then lastly, I'll talk about some common diseases that afflict the endocrine system.
1:09.0	And this should be the most interesting part just because
1:11.3	I'll talk in the detail about some of the mechanisms. Give you guys an interesting background into
1:15.6	some of these diseases. And this material will show up on two out of the four MCAT sections,
1:20.7	the biochemistry, biology section, and also the chemistry physics section. It's important to note,
1:25.8	though, that really the main part of this will be the biology and biochem sections. You may see something about it on chemistry physics.
1:32.9	It's going to be reference to and then you'll probably perform some kind of calculation
1:36.2	regarding that. So most important to know for the bio-biochem section. So let's get started.
	...

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